Marine Ecosystems and Management (MEAM) interviewed Joshua Stoll, an assistant research professor of marine policy at the University of Maine, as one of 17 social and interdisciplinary researchers working on innovative ways to improve ocean conservation and management. Stoll’s research focuses on different fisheries and their adaptability and resilience in the face of rapid change in marine environments. According to Stoll, those who participate in Maine’s lobster fishery alone show significantly different levels of adaptability and resilience in the face of change depending on their access to or participation in fisheries outside of lobstering. Some are very well-positioned to change, and others are poorly-positioned to adapt, suggesting that vulnerability and adaptive capacity needs to be investigated at the multi-fishery scale, rather than within any particular fishery. This approach provides a systematic way to account for the dynamic social and ecological interactions in a changing ecosystem, Stoll said. “Many coastal communities are actively thinking about how they will be impacted by climate change and other socioeconomic and ecological threats on the horizon (or that are actively unfolding),” Stoll told MEAM. “My hope is that our research will inform communities’ approach to thinking about adaptability and resilience.”